Category: Sketchbook

Mell’s Piano

My recently departed friend Mell Lazarus (cartoonist of the comic strip Momma) has a white baby grand piano in his living room that he invited visiting cartoonists to draw on. It has sketches on it from the likes of Charles Schulz, Gary Trudeau, Will Eisner, Eric Goldberg, Gary Baseman, Bil Keane, Patrick McDonnell, Mort Drucker, Stephan Pastis, Barbara Dale, Tony Bancroft, Jack Davis, Lynn Johnston, Mike Kunkel, and many, many more. Perhaps you’ll recognize the characters even if you don’t know the artists names.

Back in 1997 when this project was pretty new and there were only a handful of sketches on it, Mell invited me to add a drawing. I had JUST moved to California to work for Disney, and was only a kid in the biz, so it was pretty intimidating – so intimidating that I drew a pretty terrible drawing. A few years later after the piano had filled up much more, I saw my bad drawing and asked Mell if I could redo it. He agreed (both to it being terrible, and to redoing it), so he pulled out some sandpaper from the piano bench, and I gently rubbed away my old drawing, and redrew the exact same thing, only better. 

You can see my piece around the 2:28 mark in this video shot by friend and fellow cartoonist Rick Detorie (One Big Happy comic strip). Best of all, Mell’s legacy lives on as you hear him talking about the piano.

 

Categories
Animals Cartoons Disney Sketchbook Videos

Bug Bites

So, to elaborate a little on my last post, I thought I’d share just a tad bit more about my camping experience a few weeks ago in the Russian wilderness…

Camping and I just don’t get along well. I prefer seeing nature through the protection of a window – protection from the insects. I am big and juicy, and every manner of mosquito, black fly, and anything with wings with a taste for flesh manages to find a spot on my skin and digs in for a delightful smörgåsbord.

Not having gone camping once since I was fourteen years old, I had hopes that this trip might be different. After all, Russia and America have been on decent terms with each other since the early 90s. Surely their mosquitos would welcome me with open arms just as the Russian people had. Just the same, following Ronald Reagan’s advice to “trust, but verify,” I went armed with the best deet bug spray I could find, and coated myself with that stinky armor ready to defend my pure, lily-white skin. The Russian mosquitos welcomed me alright – welcomed me with open teeth.

Ranging from teeny tiny to flies about the size of my head, my body became a living sacrifice to the whims of the wild. Due to the frequency of the swatting, I got to know the tone of the slaps on my body so well, that by the end of the camping trip I was able to flawlessly play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on my skin. This was strangely appropriate since that song was written to celebrate the 1812 defense of Russia against invading mosquitos – I mean, Napoleon.

 

While maybe not exactly scientific, this is an accurate depiction of how I remember the experience.
While maybe not exactly scientific, this is pretty much an accurate depiction of how I remember the experience.

 

All humor aside, the trip did have many wonderful moments with friends old and new. The 50 or so other folks I camped with did indeed welcome me and showed me such incredible hospitality. The father of one friend graciously loaned me sleeping bags and a tent, one family saw my discomfort in not being able to sleep and loaned me an air mattress they had brought for swimming, while another family loaned me an extra sweatshirt as I was woefully unprepared for the drastic shifts in temperature, and the camp nurse graciously gave me a salve for my countless bug bites. Other folks did all the cooking, sometimes with a hot three-course meal which always helped distract from other discomforts. So yes, it was real camping away from the comforts of home, but with the generosity of others, it was an amazing six-day long experience.

Still, I’m not sure that needs to be repeated.

Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Caricature Character Designs Life Drawings Self Portrait Sketchbook

John Silver

A couple of weeks ago, I spent six days camping in the untamed nature of Russia. You read that right – in RUSSIA! I am not much one for going on a genuine camping trip. My last camping trip was when I was 14 years old, and it was the trip that convinced me to never go camping again. Well, sometimes you have to break promises you made to yourself.

This isn’t an official post about my camping trip. Maybe I’ll share with you more about that another time. However, this IS a post to share a drawing I did while on that camping trip. I went into the Russian forest with a large church group where we heard many messages preached from God’s Word, we went swimming in a lake, played volleyball, and had craft time every day.

Craft time for me mostly meant doing drawings for everyone else, which was perfectly fine. I drew several Mickey Mouses (or would that be Mickey Mice?), Donald Duck, Winnie the Poohs, a Kronk used on a nail craft project, and even some of my own creations. One that was maybe the most fun to draw, and most unusual to get a request for, was John Silver from Disney’s Treasure Planet.

While I did work on Treasure Planet, I was not one of the animators. I had done some sketches of him back in the day, but was long removed from the project. One friend of mine had internet access out there in the middle of nowhere, so we looked him up for reference, and I worked out this sketch of Silver with his companion Morph. I loved how it turned out, and thought maybe you’d enjoy seeing it, too.

Camping – in the woods – in Russia – with internet access – drawing John Silver – very strange, yet memorable.

 

Arrrr! The Russian woods be a risky place to be drawin' pirates!
Arrrr! The Russian woods be a risky place to be drawin’ pirates!
Categories
Art: Animation Art: Drawings Disney Random Doodles Sketchbook

Honey Bear

Today’s sketch was a little something I created on the first page of a sketchbook I gave to a friend’s niece. She is a creative 10-year-old, so why not make a little gift of something to encourage her with her art!

The sketchbook is your regular ol’ white-paged book and the drawing was inked in it with a brush pen with just a splash of yellow watercolor to define the honey. I just decided to goose it a little digitally by scanning it into Photoshop, dropping it onto some brown Canson paper, and then adding some modest highlights and shadows on the bear.

 

A bear in his natural habitat. Just don't ask where he got the straw and little umbrella.
A bear in his natural habitat. Just don’t ask where he got the straw and little umbrella.

 

Categories
Animals Art: Inking Character Designs Illustrations Random Doodles Sketchbook

Viking Cat

The other day in a weird burst of thought, it occurred to me that Vikings must have had cats for pets. They were a seafaring people, and with all that fish around, surely there had to be cats. Maybe the cats enjoyed plundering and pillaging little mouse villages, too – who knows?

One thing is for sure – after a hard day’s work of marauding, a tired Viking would probably enjoy putting his soggy feet up by a fire and exercise his sensitive side by petting a purring kitty as he drifts off to a Norse dreamland.

 

The call of the sea is a strong one.
The ferocious Viking and his trusty kitty in tune with the purr of the sea.
Categories
Animals Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Yo Ho Ho!

The other day I was reading an article saying that some ocean archaeologists found what they believe to be the anchor from Blackbeard’s actual ship off the coast of North Carolina! I got all excited about it, and for days I was thinking about pirates! I even went so far as to sketch this one on a letter I was writing to a friend. (Yes, some of us still write real letters – it’s better than e-mail to give friends real sketches.) Then I went back and re-read the article, and found that it had been posted in 2011. So much for current events.

Well, I suppose that since the anchor was found in the ocean, that qualifies it for being a current event no matter how you look at it. (Can I have a rimshot?)

 

This may not exactly be the pirate's chest you were looking for.
This may not exactly be the pirate’s chest you were looking for.
Categories
Art: Drawings Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Happy Cat

Welcome back to work after the long holiday weekend! You know that’s where you are as you read this. You were too busy relaxing and having fun over the Memorial Day holiday to bother keeping up with Facebook and other such time wasters on the net. We all know that’s what the first hour or two back at work is for anyway!

While others may be dragging in grumpy about leaving behind their weekend experiences to sit under the lulling pulsating hum of fluorescent lights and in the warm gentle glow of a computer screen with the hint of weak coffee in the air, take this opportunity to be the optimistic happy cat in the bunch.

 

There's always one.
There’s always one.

 

As for me, I’m at the beach today. My smile is genuine.

Categories
Animals Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook

Combover Lion

Sometimes when I sketch, I just start with a nose and see where it goes from there with no preconceived notion of what I am about to draw. Other times the sketch is informed by a curiosity I may have. Such is the case with today’s doodle. I saw pictures of some male lions, and I wondered what they might look like if they started losing their hair and decided to do a combover.

 

Once the lack of hair was drawn, the glasses soon were added, then the bow tie. The lion became an ivy league professor!
Once the lack of hair was drawn, the glasses soon were added, then the bow tie. The lion became an ivy league professor!
Categories
Animals Art: Drawings Art: Photoshop Character Designs Random Doodles